


Everyone You Know Someday Will Die

by sigrún (stumpy)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Bombs, Canon-Typical Violence, Established Relationship, F/F, Gen, King's Row (Overwatch), Lenily, London, Minor Original Character(s), Mission Fic, Off-screen Relationship(s), Post-Recall, Talon Reaper | Gabriel Reyes, Uniforms, emilena, lots of descriptions about flying and other semi-meaningless things that lena gets hyper-fixated on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-15 00:28:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11219430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stumpy/pseuds/sigr%C3%BAn
Summary: Talon has its claws in London, and a nuclear bomb set to detonate in Trafalgar Square at midnight. The military and police's drones as well as many omnic citizens have been taken over as Talon soldiers. The terms for it all to go away? Immediate detainment of all Overwatch officials. Any intervention will likely end in death followed by the payload's immediate detonation.Lena Oxton doesn't like her odds, but she refuses not to fight. Everyone she knows, someday, will die, but today is not their day. If it is, she will go down with them.





	1. Impossibilities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All things begin somewhere.

[“It’s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqPiVCxXehY) impossible to win. This is a goddamned suicide mission.”

Of course, Lena Oxton had never enjoyed the word “impossible”. She was impossible, herself; a time travelling Overwatch agent who was barely tethered to her own reality. Her eyes narrowed and she faced Jesse, shoulders squared. “I want to stay, Jesse. I’m going to stay. And I’m going to fight them.”

London was in danger, to put it shortly. Talon had pulled its forces together, had taken control of a large amount of omnics with the help of an elusive hacker, and now they were headed into the center of the city with a nuclear weapon. Their only request was the immediate disbandment and imprisonment of Overwatch, which all of the recalled agents knew would only spell disaster. Besides that, the UN had no right to enter the Watchpoint, owned by Helix Security and in no way officially linked to the new Overwatch. And so, the city center was a war zone, police and military fighting against not only Talon, but their own omnic citizens and military drones. Emily was there, in the middle of it, pinned down. And Lena had promised, fighting past the panic and anger that warred in her chest, that she’d come get her. Emily had been so scared, had told her not to come because  _ she could die _ . But Lena knew the risks. Emily was worth it. Her mum and dad were worth it. Her friends were worth it. London was worth it.

Jesse clapped his hands on her shoulders, leaning down to meet her eyes on her level. “Lena. You’re going to die if you go in there.”

“I probably will,” she agreed, shrugging off his hands. “I can’t stand here while my whole world falls apart, you know that.”

With that, she turned, and began to poke through the hanger, eyes flickering over the few vehicles. Jesse sighed behind her, then jogged to catch up with her. “Lena! Lena, goddamn it, okay. I’ll ask around. No matter what the others say, I'm with you.”

“Even if you could die?” Lena asked, a bit teasingly. “Or worse, get court martialed?”

Jesse snorted. “Find a big fuckin’ jet, Oxton. I’ll get the others.”

Twenty minutes later, they had everyone, except Winston and Satya, who Jesse had explicitly forbidden Athena from telling. They looked at her expectantly, and Lena felt herself pale, and then realized: she was to blame for anything that happened here. Still, she swallowed hard. “Hello, luvs. This is… it’s not easy, y’know? Seeing all of you and asking you to come with me. But, I have to fight. And I know I probably can’t do it alone. I know it’s impossible, and that we might all die, and London might turn into a crater, but I can’t just let this happen. Hell, me being here is impossible, so I don’t really believe that there’s nothing we can do, yeah? I can’t believe it. My mum and dad are there, and Emily, and all my old friends, and I can’t believe I can’t save them. I know everyone is going to die one day, but goddamn it, today isn't that day! I'm not going to give in!”

_ It’ll kill me if I give in _ , she refrained from adding, but the implication hung in the air all the same. There was a moment of heavy, thick silence, and Lena almost started to backpedal, wracking her brain for a way to get out of it. But then, Genji took his faceplate off. He was another impossibility, Lena reflected, not meant to be alive but somehow he’d gone through hell and lived anyway. Rubbing his scarred face, he nodded. “Lena, I am with you, as always.”

Angela linked her fingers loosely through his, and gave him a tiny smile, then another to Lena. “Together,  _ kolibri _ .”

One by one, her friends stepped up, and her heart stopped feeling like it was being twisted and wrung out. A certain warmth bubbled up, the kind that she often followed up with tears of joy, but she kept her resolve, as even Hanzo and Jack stepped up. She nodded slowly. “Okay. Right. Well… Get ready. We’re moving out in an hour.”

An hour later, they had loaded all of their gear onto the Condor, a behemoth of a jet, not quite supersonic, but big enough to hold the entirety of the recalled Overwatch, plus Hana’s mech. At just under the speed of sound (by only about a hundred kilometers per hour), Lena figured they could make it in an hour and a half. She called Hana up to the front to co-pilot, the young woman uncharacteristically somber. She was in some of the old Overwatch gear, just like everyone else on the jet, Lena realized with a start. “Oi, luv, why are you all wearing that stuff?”

“We’re going into war, right?” Hana asked, checking the baseball cap that she had on backwards. “Besides, we want to be shown as Overwatch by the media, not some group of mercs that just so happened to want London to be safe. This is how we get reapproved by the UN.”

Lena paused, letting the engines roar to life. “Don’t suppose someone brought mine, too?”

“Dr. Z has it,” Hana replied. “Get us in the air, and I can handle the plane until you get back.”

Lena nodded, and slid on her headset. Hana did the same. “Alright, ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. Prepare for take-off, T-minus fifteen seconds. Hana, thrusters, if you would, luv.” The thrusters cut on. “Good. Bringing us up to twenty percent, nice and slow, at one-eighty degrees for twenty meters.” They cleared the hanger. “Right, luv, give me ninety-degrees, I’m going to up the thrust to fifty for thirty meters.” And they were up. “Forty five degrees, and we’re gonna go up to eighty percent.” A few minutes later, they were at cruising altitude. “One-eighty degrees, thrusters at eighty. Take-off sequence is a success, transferring to autopilot with Agent Song supervising, alright? Authorization code TRCR-01-C2-01.”

_ “Transfer authorized,” _ Athena agreed.  _ “Agent Song is temporarily acting pilot.” _

With a grin, Lena set her headset aside, patted Hana’s head, and skipped back to go see about her uniform.

* * *

Despite the years, Lena slipped into the uniform easily. She left off the hat (a tragedy, really, to cover her hair!), and preened momentarily in the mirror. Yeah, this was much better than the same old ratty jacket she’d had since her RAF days, she decided as she threw on the standard-issue long blue jacket, and as she stepped back out among her colleagues, friends, family, she agreed with Hana. This looked like Overwatch. If, when, they succeeded, perhaps this would fix the public’s perception of Overwatch. Maybe they would be legal again.

Hurriedly, she scampered back up to the pilot seat again, dropping next to Hana. “Got about an hour. Take a nap if you can, luv. You’re gonna need it.” Then, to Athena, “Agent Oxton checking back in, ID number TRCR-01, requesting Agent Song be relisted as secondary pilot.”

_ “Request accepted,” _ said Athena.  _ “You have full control, Agent Oxton.” _

Hana offered a small smile. “Wake me up if you wanna catch a little nap.”

Lena nodded, though she had no intention of waking Hana up until their destination. As Hana curled up, Lena leaned back, watching the dials as they swept closer to her home.

* * *

Stepping out onto the torn up parking lot, Lena immediately felt ill. The streets were empty, and she could smell smoke, and hear gunfire. Hana shifted uneasily behind her, MEKA screeching quietly as it copied her movement. “I don’t like this. My viewers don’t either.”

Lena shook her head. “I don’t like it. Buncha tossers ruining London.”

“Where are we headed?” asked Reinhardt, uncharacteristically soft spoken. “I assume in the direction of the gunfire, yes?”

She bobbed her head once in agreement. “Yea, big guy. Trafalgar Square, actually. Detonation is supposed to be midnight; Talon gave the UN all day to come in and get us.”

Jack chimed in, “We need to move fast either way. Once word gets back to Talon that we’re here-”

“Kaboom,” Jesse finished somberly. “Let’s move, Lena.”

She nodded. “Rein, you’re on point. Hana, you’re in back to watch our six. Heavy firepower needs to be in the center, and you need to protect Ang. Lúcio, luv, you’re gonna love your job.” He perked up, and Lena offered a tight, conspiratorial grin. “You’re gonna hack the sound system at Trafalgar and play whatever you think will help. Take whoever you need to help.”

“Aw, hell yeah, Lena! Genji, man, you down?”

“Always,” he agreed. “Will Ana be positioned close by?”

Lena nodded. “Either high ground nearby, or in a room near where you are, if there’s big enough windows. And Hanzo’s gonna make it his mission in life to fuck up Widowmaker, and keep an eye out with his sonic arrows for Sombra. She isn’t exactly loyal to Talon, though, so she might not be too keen on defending with her life, y’know. Jess is with you too, luv, just so you know.”

“Jack,” she continued, as they began walking, “you’re gonna be on Reaper duty. You’ll be able to distract the  _ hell _ out of him. Or at least, Jesse had that impression. So you’re gonna keep him busy when we have to get into the square to disarm the bomb.”

“Great,” he deadpanned, pulling a frown. “I’m bait.”

Lena clapped his shoulder and grinned. “Bait with an automatic pulse rifle and helix rockets!”

“Oh, just  _ peachy _ .”

She laughed once, harshly. “Alright, let’s keep it moving. We should be there in no time flat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angela's nickname (and Reinhardt's as well!) for Lena is "kolibri" which is German for "hummingbird".


	2. Interlude: No Easy Ways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More like an interlude: there's no action, just some exposition stuff to kinda get you set up for what's happening next.

“Gabe, we have a problem.”

Sombra clacked her nails against the projected keyboard, and swiped an image over to float in front of Gabe’s face. He scowled. “What is this?”

“Overwatch,” Sombra replied, peering at her nails. One was chipped; she’d need to focus on fixing that later. “Everyone but the monkey and that weird Vishkar chick.”

Gabe snarled. “Fuck.”

“Eeyup.” Sombra popped the last syllable, and took a drink of her coffee, with a Cheshire cat grin that was _really_ starting to tick Gabe off. “You better do something about it,  _ amigo _ . Clock’s ticking. Ten minutes ‘til they arrive. So either get us evac and blow this popsicle stand, or come up with some really fuckin’ good plan.”

He stood and rushed past her, a trail of black smog radiating behind him. Sombra coughed on it, and returned to her keyboard. She let a full set of diagnostics start for all the systems, and then glued herself to the security feeds, watching soldiers begin to scramble. Nine minutes.

* * *

It was silent, save for the electric smell of spent pulse rounds, and the crunch of their boots against the casings on the ground. Reinhardt had taken point, but his shield wasn’t up yet, and he held his hammer over one shoulder. They crept along, slower than any of them liked, checking their watches and comm units regularly. Two hours. Then: boots, and a lot of them. The click of guns priming, and muffled voices. Reinhardt reacted first, his shield flying up just as the bullets rained down on them, protective instinct overpowering all others. Fareeha launched up into the air, and Lena and Genji split off from either side. Hana flew her mech over the top of Rein’s shield, and crashed down onto a few soldiers with a nauseating squash. She screeched as bullets pinged off of her cockpit, and Jack was quick to dispatch the biggest threats to her. Lena looked up, watching Fareeha launch a concussion missile, and then she was moving, sweeping through the dispersed men and dispatching the ones that didn’t turn tail and run.

“Clear a path!” Reinhardt roared, and Hana bunny-hopped over his charge. Lena watched as the group was split in half by the enormous German knight. He bellowed again. “Come here, you Talon bastards! I’ll fight the lot of you!”

Wisely, a sect of them split off and ran, dropping weapons as they went. Lena was quite sure if she saw Reinhardt Wilhelm charging at her, she might peace out as well. There was a grunt, and she whirled to see an agent with a sleep dart poking out of his neck. She shot a cheery salute at Ana and raced off.

* * *

“Gabe, we still have a problem!”

“I’m starting the detonation process as soon as we get confirmed evac.”

Sombra snarled. “They’re less than ten minutes out. Probably five, actually. They’re going faster now,  _ mierda _ .”

Gabe gave her a pointed look. “We have a nuke.”

“Yeah, and they know we’re not gonna detonate it while we’re here! I’m not getting killed over this, Gabe.”

But he was already sweeping away. Sombra sighed, and mumbled, “Just ‘cause your boyfriend is here doesn’t mean you get to have a one track mind, Gabey.”

Less-than-thrilled, Sombra started working on an idea, something that she never before thought she’d entertain. If Gabe was going to be a total moron, she was going to have a survival plan. And that, she decided as she glanced at the screens, might just mean making some new friends. Cracking her fingers gently, she began her work.

* * *

 

 

Lena checked her comm, watching the frequencies from Hanzo’s sonic arrow as her ally (Friend? Perhaps, but he was as prickly as a porcupine sometimes.) described what they meant. The bomb was under very obvious heavy security, and the place was crawling with soldiers, like an ant hill. The young woman cursed. “That’s… a lot.”

“You can say that again,” Hanzo mumbled, looking at his own screen. “At least a hundred, including omnics. I see no easy way to spare all of the hacked innocents, and no easy way to reach the bomb without provoking a detonation. They're ready for us too. Look at the formations.”

Jack was quiet, hunched next to her; they were practically on top of each other, really, in the back of the empty shop they were posted up in. It felt safe, but Lena knew all-too-well that it was a fragile thing: too much noise, too long spent there, and they would be discovered. She tipped her head back against the wall with a heavy sigh. “What the  _ hell _ do we do, Han? Any of you?”

“We stick to the plan,” Jesse said, watching her. “You had a good plan, and we can’t exactly chicken out now, can we? We  _ have _ to stick to the plan we’re familiar with.”

Lena bobbed her head in a nod that felt far too cheery, and packed her fear into a little hard marble sitting in her stomach. “Well… yeah. Yeah, suppose you’re right, luv. Let’s do this then.”

Expertly, she flipped her pulse pistols into her hands, comforted by the soft hum that they emitted. They all stood, and she nodded to Reinhardt. “Alright big guy. On your mark.”

“Let’s go, my friends!” he decided, and together they filed out the door into the crisp London night.

Far away, Sombra also began to move.


End file.
